Saturday, 30 May 2015

Phase 2

A lot has happened over the course of 24 hours for us. Phase 2 is in motion and it hit hard today. What is phase 1 you ask? Sit down mortals, grab some trail mix, let me explain. Phase 1 of sailing is getting on board, cleaning the boat, stocking the boat, provisioning, driving around boating supply stores in a rental car, learning how the toilets work, fixing the engine, buying silverware and kitcheny stuff, febreezing the heck out of everything, the list goes on. Believe it or not learning how toilets work on a boat is a very hard concept for most people to wrap their heads around. When I was a little girl and someone new would come onboard, before anything at all I would give them a tour of the boat and teach them how the toilets worked. That stuff is witchcraft man. Phase 1 of sailing is super important because if your boat isn't organised and clean and everyone on board isn't prepared, certified and educated on why turning off lights is so important, you probably aren't ready for phase 2. We've spent a good week in phase 1. The time we've spent running through the isles of West Marine, Home Depot and Fawcett's boat store, is crazy. You'd think we were part time owners by now.

Phase 2 is where stuff gets real. You leave the marina and get a mooring. The boat starts rocking. You're seasick. You walk around in your underwear. This is when you know there's no turning back. Today I knew it was phase 2 because when I woke up my dad was gone, and my little boatie kid instincts said to make breakfast. Not to do any phase 1 stuff, just jump right into boat life and start the day because I know we had some sailing ahead of us. I made my dad spam and eggs and I made a bowl of pineapple for myself. When I was a kid spam was like a gift from God. Kel and I would smell spam in the morning and we knew it was someones birthday or Jesus had come back or something. My sister and I held spam on the highest pedestal in terms of breakfast foods. I realised today my childhood was a lie and spam is just dog food strategically placed in the human food isle. It was so gross looking but I made my dad a hearty breakfast and danced around the kitchen till he came home. We checked out the maps and I used the dividers to measure where we were trying to get to and how long it would take to get there. Learn math kids, stay in school, cause one day you might need to read a map and your life will flash before your eyes and you'll forget how to count to 5.

After cabin inspection and the kitchen and boat was all clean, my dad's friend and the boatyard manager, Ted came over to help fix our engine. He talked to us for a long, long time about life and politics and the history of the city. He's lived here for most of his life and he told us when he was a kid black people would live underneath the tiniest abandoned boats that were just left there on the side of the creek. They would crab all day, cook fish at night, and just raise their kids and live their lives. He said they were the nicest people and would always talk to him and his friends when they walked the creek like Huckleberry Finn or something. Keep in mind, this was a totally different time in history. The black people would flip the boats over so they could use them as shelter and a place to sleep. Eventually, in the immancipation proclamation, Abe Lincoln gave that land away to the black people. The white people didn't want it because of the bugs. What a bunch of wimpies. Ted was a cool guy to listen to.

The people you meet sailing are really the folks you'll remember your entire life. I have friends my age and I have some amazing people in my day to day life but the characters I really remember are the weirdos you run into on the water. I don't see them all the time, and I may never see them again in my life but I'll never forget the people I met as a kid cruising. We still have life long friends from Norway, England, all over America, and every corner of the planet. Not a lot are my age and I can't relate to any of them that well but learning about other people's lives and stories is really a gift and if you have the chance to talk to people, especially travelling I highly recommend it.

My dad and I drove to do a couple more errands to finish off the tedious and draining phase 1. We dropped off the rental car and got a taxi back to the boat yard. I can't stand taxis, it's like paying someone to kidnap you and your family. They might as well just carry candy with them, give you the whole experience. We got back to the boatyard and took off. We just sailed to downtown Annapolis and there were tons of boats out. It's a total sailing town, every single person that lives there owns a boat or at least works or crews on one. I didn't get behind the wheel, I just took care of lines and tying the boat on and off. When we finally approached the mooring my dad left getting the boat on the mooring up to me which wasn't too scary until we got up close to it. The notion that I'd never done this before kicked in and I was really nervous I was going to fall overboard or ya know, miss the mooring. I got the line on the boat on the first try though. It was pretty neat. If I accomplished anything this Summer, it was that.

I took a stellar nap. My dad tried like crazy to inflate the dingy but nothing was working. Our pump looked like something you would get at party and craft and it was killing him trying to blow this .. thing up. I woke up when it started getting dark outside and there was another guy in the cockpit with my dad. Turns out the boat next to us was from Wasilla, Alaska. I know, the world is so little. Once again, you meet the nicest people sailing. He talked to us about his life, and how he went to Wasilla high and some stuff about politics. Everyone talks about politics with my dad and I. Anyway, this guy, Nick brought a better dingy pump and helped us blow up the dingy and get it in the water. He blogs too. Check out knoticalnic.wordpress.com. I knew knot puns weren't lame.

My dad and I caught the water taxi into town to have some dinner and catch some of the Saturday night action. The city of Annapolis is crazy at night. It's filled with drunk, white people. Kind of like a family get together at my uncle Jason's house. We walked the streets and got some sweet tea and dinner at the cutest little diner. I'm a tea conniosseur and I'm all about sweet tea but sweet tea in the South is on a whole different level. This was like 90% sugar. It was diabetes in the cup. I could feel my mom in Alaska screaming.

It's about 12:30am here now. I'm wide awake and I probably will be for a long while. I have a lot on my mind. The one thing about blogging that makes me feel annoying is that it's mostly or all about my life and experiences. Which is okay, I understand the only people reading this are probably a little curious as to what a 17 year old girl on a boat gets up to on the daily. I cherish people that take time to tell me they read what I write and they find it interesting or funny. My favorite thing is when other people or my friends tell me about their day and what's going on in their lives so if you do things doing your day, or don't do things feel free to message me on any site you please and tell me about it. I'm on a boat, I have a lot of free time to listen. And I love doing so. Even when my nana writes to tell me about her garden club, or my friends back home tell me about their drunk camping trips, I love it. I soak that stuff up. Tell me about your awkward first dance, tell me about what you want to do in the future, tell me about how you picked up 5 cats on the side of the road and your mom said you can't keep them but they lived in your closet for a week because you couldn't part with them. Because that's someone's life and it's cool to be apart of that. People are such complex beings, and the day to day stuff that makes up their entire exitence is super cool to hear about. The connections you make, you could have for your entire life. All I do on this blog is tell you about the little bits and peices that I do everyday on the boat, and people seem to read it. I looked at the stats yesterday which is wild considering I can barely work the oven by myself. I'm like an old lady trying to use an iphone for the first time, I swear. I'm not as technologically savvy as I seem. Trying to use google maps on my phone is like trying to navigate the mars rover for me. My friends can testify. Anyway, It said over 400 people looked at this blog just yesterday, which kind of freaks me out but it encourages me that people still want to hear about other people's lives and jouneys. How cool. I hope all 400 of you are doing wonderfully. Hello friends and some friends I haven't met yet.
Hugs and kisses from the sea, xo